Broken promises, or 'How GameStop's error cost Stardock a vacation'

Stardock employees had their Easter weekend ruined by GameStop when the retailer decided to break street date on the Gas Powered Games-developed action RTS, Demigod. "We were looking forward to the weekend to recover," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell wrote on the publisher's official forum. "Instead, we found ourselves back at work having to turn on and configure the multiplayer matchmaking servers."

Beyond losing vacation time, Wardell theorizes the early availability of Demigod will cause piracy of the copy protection-free title to be "maximized." But the outspoken (anti-intrusive DRM) exec says Demigod's early release may serve as proof of the actual effects of piracy. In response to GameStop's decision, Stardock released the game via its own digital distribution service, Impulse, a day early (on Monday).

While Wardell wouldn't discuss speculation that GameStop intentionally released Demigod early to combat Stardock's digital distribution service, the CEO says Stardock is in talks with GameStop to find out "how this happened."